Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-26
THE TRUE RELIGION.
DIR. TALNADGES SERMON DELIVERED LAST
SUNDAY.
And the Lord Said Unto Amos WhaI SeeSt Thou?
And Said Plumb Lns-ThC Worlds
Solid MaSOnry-USs Of fSs
Divine Plumb Line.
SPECIAL Telegram to the Register.

SPECIAL Telegram 10 The Register.
BROOKLYN, September 25. f-After the
great congregation had sung tbt long meter
doxology in the Tabernacle thS' morning,
DR.. Talmage expounded the sStth chapter
of the second epistle to the Corinthians,
setting forth the Importance Of separation
from bad fellowship, and say inE that man
is no better than the company he keeps.
Professor Henry Eyre Brown played an or
gan solo, Sonata No. in d minor by GULL
manti. The subject Of the sermon was "A
Straight Up-and-Down Religion" and the
text was Amos vii, V. 8: "And the Lord
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? and
/ said, A plumb line," DR.. Talmage said:
The solid masonry of the world has to
me fascination. Walk about some of the
triumphal arches and the cathedrals, four
or six hundred years old, and see them
stand as erect as when they worH builded,
walls of great height for centuries, not
bending a quarter Of an inch this way or
that. So greatly honored were the masons
who builded these walls that they were
free from taxation and called free" ma
sons. The trowel gets most of the credit
for these buildings, and its clear ringing on
stone and brick has sounded across the
ages. But there is another implement of
just as much Importance as the trowel, and
my text recognizes it. Bricklayers and
stone masons, and carpenters, in the build
ing of walls, use an instrument made Of
cord, at the end of which lump of lead
is fastened. They drop it over the side of
the wall, and, as the plummet naturally
seeks
THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY
in the earth, the workman discovers where
the wall recedes, and where it bulges out,
and just what is the perpendicular. Oar
texts represents God as standing on the
wall of character, which the Israelites had
built, aud in that way measuring it.
"And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
seest thou? and said, A plumb line"
What the world wants is q straight up.
and-down railroad. Much of the sO-called
piety of the day bends this way and that,
to suit the times. 1t is horizontal with q
low state of sentiment and morals. We
have all been building a wall of character,
aid it is glaringly imperfect and needs re-
construction. How shall it be brought
into the perpendicular? Only by the di-
vine measurement. And the Lord said
to me, Amos, what seest thou? and said,
A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the times is to
make us act by the standard ofwhat 9th
ers do. If they play cards, We play cards
If they dance, we dance If they read GER
tain styles OF books, we read them. We
throw over the wall of our character the
tangled plumb line Of other lives and re-
ject the infallible test which Amos saw.
The question for me should not be what
yOu think is right but what God thinks is
right. This perpetual reference in the be-
haviOr of others, as though it decided any
thing but human fallibility, is a mistake
as wide as the world. There are ten
thousand plumb lines in use but only PplliXSs o9Uf 9Uf
Gods eternal right There is a mighty at
tempt being made TO reconstruct and fix mp
the Ten Commandments To many they
seem to rigid. The tower of Pisa leans
over about thirteen feet from the perpen-
dicular, and people 90 thousands Of miles
TO see it's graceful inclination, and by extra
braces and various architectural contriv-
auces it is kept leaning from century to
century. Why not have the ten granite
blocks of Sinai set q little aslant? Why
not have
THE PILLAR OF TRUTH
leaning tower. Why is not an ellipse
as good as a square? Why is not an OBJ
lIque as good as straight up and down?
MY friends, we must have standard; /;
shall it be Gods or mans?
The divine plumb line needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thousands
of years ago Solomon discovered the ten
dency of buyers to depreciate goods. He
saw man beating down an article lower
and lower, and saying it was not worth
the price asked, and when he had pur-
chased at the lowest point he told every
body what a sharp bargain he had struck,
and how he had outwitted the merchant.
Proverbs, xx:14: 1T is naught, it is
naught, saith the buyer; but when he is
gone his way, then he boasteth." SO ut
terly askew is society in this matter
that you seldom find a seller asking the
price that he expects to get. He puts on
higher value than he proposes to receive,
|
if he wants fifty, he asks seventy-fve.
And if he wants two thousand he asks
twenty-five hundred.
"It is naught," saith the buyer. ''The
fabric is defective; the style of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere a better article
at q smaller price. 1t is out of fashion; it
is damaged; it will fade; it will not wear
well. After q while the merchant, from
oyer-persuasion or from desire to dispose
of that particular stock of goods, says:
"Well, take it at yopr own price," and
the purchaser goes home with light step
aud calls into his private Office his conf
dental friends, and chuckles while he tells
how that for half price he got the goods
In other words, he lies and was proud of
it. Nothing would make times as good,
and the earning OF livelihood so easy as
the universal adoption of the law of right.
SUSPICION STRIKES THROUGH
all bargain making. Men who sell know
not whether they will ever get the money.
Purchasers know not whether the goods
shipped will be according to the sample
And what, with the large number of clerks
who are making false entries and then alb
sconding to Canada, and the explosion of
firms who fail for millions of dollars, hon
est men are at their wits end to make q
living. He who stands up amid all the
pressure and does right is accomplishing
something toward the establishment of a
high commercial prosperity. have deep
sympathy for the labOring classes who toll
with hand and foot. But we must not
forget the business men who without any
complaint or hammered possessions through
the streets are enduring a stress of circum-
stances terrific. The fortunate people OF
to-day are those who are receiving daily
wages on regular salaries. And the men
most to be pitied are those who conduct a
business while prices are failing, and
yet try to buy their clerks and
employes, and are in such
fearful straits that they would quit bust
ness tomorrow if it were not for the
wreck and ruin of others. When people
tell me what ruinously low price they
purchased an article, it gives me more dis
NAV than satisfaction. / know it means
the bankruptcy and defalcation Of men in
| p,anv denartments The men who toll